The Donor Research Team managed to attend both freshers’ fairs at the Eastbourne campus and at the Falmer campus in Brighton. Both freshers’ fairs bought in different groups of students. The Eastbourne campus is mainly comprised of healthcare students studying degrees such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy and midwifery. The fair at Falmer campus was a lot bigger and attracted students across all Brighton campuses which includes arts and science degrees as well as healthcare degrees.
Over the past 6 months we have been planning for the first NHSBT freshers’ fair to start conversations on organ donation, as well as giving students across the University of Brighton the opportunity to think about registering an informed choice. We began planning in April at our networking day at the Brighton Mercure Hotel. We wanted to make our stand appealing and eye-catching to students. We did this by having some #letstalkabout it bunting and awesome pink NHSBT t-shirts! We also had a tin of beans at our stall, which engaged quite a few students wondering why it was there- it weighs as much as a single *!
NHSBT had kindly given us some merchandise which was completely gone by 13:00! We were so happy that we managed to engage lots of students as well as fellow stand owners! I was impressed that by seeing our stand, conversations were started, so people were able to come and ask questions. I especially enjoyed speaking to people about the change in law and how important it was to share your wishes with your next of kin and loved ones!
It wasn’t just me that enjoyed the day, the other Event Champions at the stand had a blast too!
Our Events and Outreach Lead, Lois Leese said freshers’ fair was “such an amazing opportunity to talk to such a diverse group of students. I was blown away by the readiness of so many to come and chat and ask questions. Brighton uni students are the best!”
Our Social Media Lead, Amber Anscombe added: “promoting the education and conversation around organ and blood donation in such a busy environment was really energising! I feel it enabled our team to be dynamic with how we approached conversation starters and getting people engaged!”
We spoke to lots of students from a variety of courses including adult nursing, primary education, graphic design and physiotherapy. It was great to see so many students interested in organ donation!
If you saw us at freshers’ fair there’s still time to get involved with the Donor Research Team !
*A tin of Heinz beans weighs 415g. A pair of adult lungs approximately weigh 1000g (D’Angelis, C.A. et al., 2011). The left lung is smaller than the right lung.
References
D’Angelis, C.A., Coalson, J.J. and Ryan, R.M., 2011. Structure of the respiratory system: lower respiratory tract. In Pediatric Critical Care (pp. 490-498). Elsevier Inc..